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Kookaburras into Games final against India

Ben Horne

One of sport's great rivalries exploded as the Australian men's hockey team booked their place in another Commonwealth Games final by downing England 4-1.

Despite receiving a scare from fired-up England in their semi-final on Saturday, unbeaten Australia are confident they can back up on Sunday and extend one of the great Games records by winning a fifth consecutive gold medal when they meet India in the decider.

India came from 2-0 down to beat New Zealand 3-2 in the other semi-final.

Australian captain Mark Knowles said his world champion team were prepared for the fiery clash they got with England.

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"It was the exact semi-final we thought we'd get," said Knowles.

"We know when we get to a level we're very hard to beat."

Australia went to 2-0 thanks to early goals to Tristan White and Simon Orchard, and after the margin was cut to one, Chris Ciriello responded at the clutch and Eddie Ockenden added another.

But the match was as intense as they come.

England star Ashley Jackson, a man on a mission.

He launched a verbal attack before the match, furious that Australian television broadcaster Network Ten had pulled strings to bring the time of the semi-final forward to 10am (7pm AEST) local time to suit Australian audiences.

"It's absolute rubbish. An Australian TV company dictates what happens over here in Glasgow. It's very irritating," said Jackson, who went on to make his intentions clear on the pitch.

Jackson raised eyebrows when he appeared to check Kookaburras midfielder Daniel Beale on the knee before halftime, causing the 21-year-old to writhe in the ground in pain.

"I don't know if it was intentional or not. The teams play a very physical style of hockey," said Beale, who will be right for Sunday's final against either New Zealand or India.

Jackson was also green-carded for two minutes earlier in the first half, giving officials a spray as he left the field.

England were warned for swearing by the referee in the second term and both teams finished the match with players in the sin-bin.

"When top players want to do well you normally get a reaction out of them," said skipper, Knowles, who also struggled to keep emotions in check.

In the other semi-final, world No.6 New Zealand were on target to beat the ninth-ranked Indians when Simon Child scored after 96 seconds and Nick Haig doubled the lead in the 18th minute.

However Rupinder Singh scored from a penalty stroke for India to trail 2-1 at halftime.

And Ramandeep Singh then scored from a brilliant deflection and Akashdeep Singh from a flashing backhand shot to hand the Indians a deserved lead.